The driver was a clean-cut white guy in his late 20s. He asked how far I was going. When I said Charlottesville, he nodded and said he was getting off of I-70 on the west side of Indy, not quite to I-465, which does a lap around Indy. The driver of my next ride, a woman XV/XXII

in her 40s, said, smugly, she could get me to Indy’s south side. She added that she wasn’t in uniform, but her job was in security. Then she reached under her seat & pulled out a .357 magnum revolver. I didn’t freak out. She was bummed. XVI/XXII

We were up the ramp and into traffic quickly. She put the gun back under the seat. I didn’t tell her I’d had a gun pulled on me before. We drove by the billboard that greeted people: “God, guns & guts made America great!” Indiana’s gun culture is rabid. A few months before, XVII/XXII

I’d thumbed to Bloomington from Greencastle. IU had a rep for parties. The driver of a pickup gave me a lift. He’d pulled a .44 magnum from under his seat & mumbled “no funny business.”
Telling this driver about that prior experience might not sound right.... XVIII/XXII

Hell, she might think I got off on people brandishing large caliber handguns. [FNIII] She got me to the Keystone exit & stopped. I got out quickly and, over my shoulder, thanked her for the ride. She peeled out as the door slammed shut, and didn’t say “You’re welcome.” XIX/XXII

Few vehicles from the “on” ramp next to where I stood joined the brisk I-465 traffic. The area around me was stunted industrialization from which sprouted an occasional house. Next to several train tracks running parallel and northeast from downtown was a liquor store. XX/XXII

Its white-blue-and-red ribbons & bunting, lightly coated with the grayish particulates of railroads, were the only July 4th decorations in sight. The Indianapolis skyline, only a few miles from where I stood, was not impressive. The air was getting warm. A car stopped. XXI/XXII

Footnotes:
FNIII. For that matter, she might have asked me for his contact info, as though he could have been the gun nut of her dreams. I never obtained contact info hitchhiking. XXII/XXII